Category Archives: Strategy

To be proactive, managers must plan. A good business plan provides an effective framework for managers to analyse the key issues and form plans that can be communicated with the necessary people. Overview A well-structured business plan is invaluable as a communication tool, upwards and downwards. It aids discussion and ownership. It allows the manager/team… Read More »

Supply-side (rather than demand-side) economics Unless you enjoy some form of protection (patents, regulation restricting supply etc) you will be in a market where supply is running ahead of demand. Too much ‘stuff’ is chasing too few customers. Required Action – Make your offer more distinctive, love your customers more that your competitors The cost… Read More »

Self-aware organisations recognise that anticipating the peak of their curve is a critical business issue, one which they need to have strategies in place to deal with before the apex is reached. Here’s some clues for you: The amount of cash the business is throwing off reaches unfeasibly high levels. There are no obvious things… Read More »

When business slows down remember these ten timeless fundamentals: Cash is king, not profit. Obsess about tracking the amount of available cash. Chase debtors, invoice correctly. Pay your own bills on time, not early. If possible sell underperforming assets, write off old stock, turn it into cash. Losing customers is a disaster. Develop customer retention… Read More »

Through our ongoing project work we thought it timely to share what we are finding to be four areas of focus that seem to make a material difference to organisational sales performance. 1. The need for their (B2B) salespeople to reposition themselves further up the value chain away from what some CEOs call ‘commodity hell’.… Read More »

To get to know your customer’s business, or that of a prospect you’d like to become a prospect, get to know the answers to these questions: Who owns the organisation? Are they part of a Corporate Group? What type of business entity is it? What subsidiaries do they have? Do they have a web site?… Read More »

Understanding what drives an organisation’s decision making should be a key part of the Account Manager’s role. Being able to articulate the strength of engagement (or lack of it), with a plan in how to manage the different relationship dynamics will significantly increase the Account Managers chances of success. A very effective tool for doing… Read More »

Over the last 20 years business organisations have transformed themselves. This has been done through the application of a much more disciplined, systemic approach to each functional area. These functions have become professional. Production is now a lean form, quality orientated practice with engaged workforces managing their own continuous improvement. Distribution or logistics through the… Read More »

Each business and market segment has its own unique value chain consisting of the combined activities that make up the internal business and external market environment. Segmenting the market place and developing a deep understanding and perspective of the unique value chain enables clients to identify key dynamics that can be optimised to allow the… Read More »

OPPORTUNITY CREATES CAPACITY… Not the other way round Take your business goals, customers and market position(s) to new levels and places, leverage your capabilities into adjacent and new markets, as well as redefining your core market offerings to set new rules for competition. Make connections and deliver insights, combine the science of analytics with the… Read More »

It’s critical to get the right approach to how you develop your people. We have developed our own taxonomy for helping understand how mature an organisation’s Learning and Development approach really is. One of the most common situations we find is how an organisation will promote the rhetoric of the right hand side but in… Read More »

Actually, a lot! Prioritising where to focus scare resources to improve the output of a sales organisation can be challenging. The one-week Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic is designed to give you immediate actions to improve sales based on comparisons with latest sales best practice research. With an intense programme of field visits, data review, interviews and… Read More »

When solving problems a common mistake is to do things the wrong way round, that is to spend too much time (and often money) on possible resolutions rather than the problem itself. Resolution searching feels like problem solving but it isn’t really, no more than agonizing over a new item of clothing is going to solve the problem of not… Read More »